The Outsider
by HYPERFocused
Summary: 10 connected drabbles for ten connected O.C Outsiders. Het, slash, and gen. First posted on LJ


Third drink of the evening, and Kirsten is still alone, waiting for Sandy to come home from his new office and all of its charms, especially the one with long brown hair and a past he can't forget. She feels like the odd person out in her marriage. Sandy can say 'It's just a case" all he wants, but she recognizes when another woman wants him, and no one has wanted Sandy more, or longer, than his first love.

That she's beautiful, and principled and someone he could have taken home to Mom is just another nail in the coffin.

Rebecca shouldn't hurt so much anymore, being alone. After all, she's only had herself to rely on for years. But to know it, to know her father is gone forever, and Sandy won't be hers is a bitter pill to swallow.

Sure, there are still sparks, and maybe if she pushed things there could be flames. But one look at his wife's shocked face as she opens his office door, and Rebecca can taste the ashes.

"Are you in love with my husband?" Kirsten asks later. Rebecca can't lie. But "He's not in love with me," are Sandy's words to tell.

It's not like Sandy's looking to make changes, but Rebecca's rekindled interest is a flattering reminder of the guy he used to be. Knowing how much he's settled down makes him a little uncomfortable.

Even after twenty years with Kirsten, and more than a decade living in Newport, Sandy still has days when he feels like that kid from Brooklyn, trying to fit into an alien world. Golden bright and warm, but living on a beach means you're standing on sand. It's the love he and Kirsten share than cements it together, and he would do well to remember that.

Zach doesn't know who or what he wants most, so it's a good thing he doesn't have to decide quite yet. Saving himself for marriage means saving himself from making a decision he 's sure to regret. Summer, the girl it's safe to love, or Seth, the boy who captures his attention.

Summer slips beautifully into the role on the page, a fantasy come to life. Zach tunes out the real girl in favor of her inked in version. His eye strays to Seth's hands as they draw. He knows he's lost. Soon, he fears, he'll only want the artist.

Summer knows she's the kind of girl who gives directions, if anyone will take them. Lower, faster, deeper, there. A Global Positioning System for her body would be a big seller, if she had any say in the matter. But all that attention to her would shift, as Seth and Zach start tuning her out, and tuning into each other. Zach's already done it. She barely registered to him when he told Seth about the comic book guy. Maybe it's a geek thing. All that time spent with other boys, so it's all they know and all they really want.

It's hardly the first time Seth has been excluded. Wanted to be on the other side of the door when something cool was going on. But before Summer… before Ryan, even, he knew that was where he belonged. Seth Cohen: Outsider. Like someone from 9th grade fiction class, or a comic book hero.

Everything changed when Ryan accepted him, showed him how much he was wanted. It made him feel like Summer might possibly want him, too. And it's obvious Zach does as well, even if he won't admit it. Maybe if Seth knocks hard enough, they'll let him in.

Ryan shouldn't care, he knows. Caleb is just a bitter old man, whose opinion of him is misguided at best, completely prejudiced at worst. He probably badmouths minorities as soon as they're out of earshot. It's nothing new to Ryan.

Seth knows his grandfather, and more importantly knows Ryan would never steal from his family. That's not what family does, and Ryan is family. But when Caleb spreads that vitriol to Lyndsay, things are different. The situation between them is weird enough already, just like the whole fucked up clan. Now he's got reason to defend his own honor.

Having a family is weird, Lyndsay thinks, when she's been used to just having a mother. Having a family and boyfriend in one is stranger. But that's nothing on the strangeness of the Nichols and Cohens together.

It's like something out of a soap opera. Secrets and lies, drinking and affairs, and she's the surprise result. She half expects catfights and big-shouldered dresses. But when he and Ryan fight, and Caleb's heart sends him to the floor, there are no commercials to break the tension.

If having a father means this much stress, she's not so sure she wants one.

It's not as if the girl is particularly likeable, Caleb thinks, standing in the open doorway of her room like it's the gateway between warring countries. But he's married to her mother, and Marissa ought to respect him. He is Caleb Nichol, after all.

Instead, she listens with undisguised disdain, and does what she wants. It'll be Julie's mess to deal with, he supposes. He doesn't know what it is about teenagers today. It's probably Ryan's fault. Everything's changed since that boy showed up in Newport. Caleb wishes he could just pay him off and get things back to normal.

Marissa doesn't know what she's doing with Alex, but she doesn't want to stop. With the help of a few Cosmopolitans (either kind: for courage or ideas) she ought to feel more confident about things. What started as just another way to piss off her mother has turned into something she's doing for herself.

When she walks into Alex's party for her, and sees all those other girls paired off, it's like a wake up call. Those girls aren't playing. This is not where she expected to be. It's going to take more than altered substances to alter her substance. 


End file.
